After years of being tormented by a man who was meant to protect her, 20-year-old Silvia (not her real name) says she got the courage to put the perpetrator behind bars.
Silvia is one of many women who have sought help at shelters that support abused women around the country.
Like many other GBV cases, Silvia says police officers failed her and did not take any action against the alleged perpetrator.
“I was abused by my aunt’s husband. I was raped from the age of 12 until I was 19-years-old. And in 2019 in November, I opened my case against my perpetrator. I was not the only one who was raped, my siblings were also raped. It’s unlike I didn’t speak out, I did but no action was taken, so they did fail me,” explains Silvia.
As she went into matric, Silvia says it was important for her to move away from an environment that brings back all the horror.
She found her way to Ikhaya Lethemba Victim Empowerment Centre.
“Coming to a shelter … I never thought that one day it will be me, but there came a point where it came into my mind that I’m doing matric, and I didn’t want anything to distract me. And today I’m a girl that managed to pull through the pandemic, with the support of the manager, directors of my social workers and health workers,” she says.
Now, she has a diploma and will be heading to university when tertiary institutions across the country reopen for the 2021 academic year.
To support the work done by shelters like, Ikhaya Lethemba Victim Empowerment Centre, the Gauteng government has embarked on a data management project to strengthen the fight against gender-based violence.
A centre to facilitate this was opened on Saturday and will be managed by the Ikhaya Lethemba Victim Empowerment Centre.
Crime stats on rapes and domestic violence:
Discussion on the scourge of GBV in South Africa:
